The Beverly Hills of Copenhagen

The S-Tog from Norreport station to Hellerup takes 10 minutes and stops once. Copenhagen’s trains are large. They show no real signs of age or wear. The suburb of Hellerup gives a similar impression.

Hellerup is located four miles north of central Copenhagen and is surrounded by parks, woodland, and pristine beaches. Where the suburb meets the coast there are private apartments and exclusive shopping areas that have given the area the moniker ‘Beverly Hills of Copenhagen’.

Slightly inland from the flashy coastal apartments and expensive shops, there are wide, quiet roads with large detached houses lining each side. Many are obscured by shrubbery or fences; some have CCTV cameras surrounded their land, but all of them are different.

Apart from a recently defaced electricity exchange, few signs of life can be found among the neatly cut lawns and recently swept pavements of the neighbourhood. The bright spring bloom of cherry trees and high wooden fences obscure the view into any windows, the strategic planting of bushes masking all but the shape of the house. This heightened seclusion perhaps stands to reason as many of the residences here are in fact the embassies of countries including Israel, Ghana, Iraq, South Korea, Italy and China.